Loyola School of Theology (LST) is an "Institute for theological and pastoral education conducted by the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus. The School is open to any qualified student, lay, religious, or clerical desirous of pursuing theological studies at the graduate level. LST's programs are also designed to provide the theological preparation for those intending to serve as priests of the Catholic Church in the Philippines."

Mission/Vision

Loyola School of Theology is a Jesuit and Filipino institution and community of learning dedicated to formative theological education and research within the Catholic tradition. It is responsive to contemporary ecclesial and social concerns for the building up and service of the Church in the Philippines and in neighboring countries.

Through its inculturated courses, programs and institutional and human resources, the mission of Loyola School of Theology is to educate in the faith, sustain personal theological growth, and assist in effective empowerment of all who desire to serve God's people by ministries in and of the Church.

It labors so that the members of its academic community may become academically competent, spiritually well-grounded, and apostolically motivated for Christian discipleship, renewed evangelization, social transformation, and responsible stewarship of the earth.

History

Loyola School of Theology evolved from the original fusion of the faculties of Berchmans College (the former Jesuit philosphate) and Colegio de San Jose. As a theological faculty, it traces its origins to Colegio de San Jose, founded in Manila more than three and a half centuries on 25 August 1601. In 1965 the newly merged theological-philosophical school was transfered to the Loyola House of Studies complex on the Ateneo campus. In June 1968 Loyola School of Theology (under the name of Loyola House of Studies, School of Theology and Ecclesiastical Studies) formally began to function as a federated unit of the Ateneo de Manila University.

On December 1, 1994 the Sacred Congregation on Catholic Education approved the LST Statutes and granted LST definitive aggregation to the Jesuit Faculty of Theology at Fujen University for purposes of granting ecclesiastical degrees.

The growth of LST from a Seminary into a School of Theology as well as the increase in student population, and above all, the growing pastoral needs of the Church in the Philippines and those of neighboring Asian countries, led Loyola School of Theology to petition the Congregation for Catholic Education in 1998 for erection into an ecclesiastical faculty in its own right. After receiving the favorable endorsement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Congregation for Catholic Education established LST as an ecclesiastical faculty on August 13, 1999.